Magic up their sleeves

Times Reporter

 

Strathmore’s Senior B Magic finished a respectable third overall in Provincials this past weekend, July 19 to 21, going 3-1 in round robin; in the playoff round, the Magic beat out the Calgary Red Sox 8-3, but lost to the Edmonton Warriors 12-2. The Warriors eventually won first place in the province.

“Everybody gave us a run. Everybody that was here in that pool, in the nine teams that were here, were all top Senior B teams. You had to earn your right,” said Magic Coach Jim Songhurst.

But the Edmonton Warriors?

“They brought everything – all of their cannons with them,” he said.

Though Strathmore may have had home diamond advantage, the other teams have all played here so often that Songhurst didn’t believe that gave the Magic an edge, especially in the playoffs against Calgary and Edmonton.

“When we stepped on the diamond, we knew who we were going up against, and we knew it was a hard hitting team,” he said. “They just got on our pitchers right off the bat, and we made a change real quick, and then got onto our reliever who pitched good innings before hand, and they just did to her what they did to the starter. They know how to hit the ball and play the game. We’ve seen them before, and our record is close, but they’re now winning the series.”

Strathmore had a few players lost to injuries, and some who were not available at the time.

“If we had the additional players, we may not have been as tired as we were, but our girls put out so hard through the round robin, but y’know, that’s the name of the game. Every team has the same issues,” said Songhurst.

Alberta sends three teams to Western Canada Finals in Saskatoon from Aug. 15 to 18, and Strathmore, finishing third, earned that last spot.

“Our girls played unbelievable. They did excellent and I’m very proud of them,” Coach Songhurst said. “They all did their job out there. You can’t pick out just one. They wanted to impress everybody because they had been told that they’re not good enough to be going to the Western Finals, and they had some points to prove.”

Songhurst believes those comments that were made just put a firecracker within his players, and made them play that much harder.

“You could tell through the games that they were going to come at you full guns flooring, no matter who they played. Everybody likes to come at us, because two years ago we were the Western Canadian Junior Champions. Good quality players always play at their fullest and it brings the best out in other teams,” he said.

The ladies have the rest of their city league play before leaving for Saskatchewan.